Alvin C. Powers, M.D., the Joe C. Davis Chair in Biologic Science and professor of medicine, molecular physiology and biophysics at Vanderbilt University, is director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center; chief of the Vanderbilt Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism; and director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center, an NIH-funded center that facilitates the diabetes-related research of more than 120 Vanderbilt scientists. He is a physician-scientist whose research on type 1 and type 2 diabetes focuses on pancreatic islet biology, development and function. His research is or has been supported by the NIH, the VA Research Service, the JDRF, and the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Dr. Powers is also director of the Vanderbilt Medical Student Research Training Program in Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism and coordinator for the NIH/NIDDK Medical Student Research Program in Diabetes. These two programs enable more than 100 medical students to conduct diabetes-related research each summer at an NIDDK-supported diabetes research center. Dr. Powers has served on advisory panels, study sections or boards for the NIH, the JDRF, the Endocrine Society and the ADA. Dr. Powers was elected to the Association of American Physicians; he received the David Rumbough Award for Scientific Excellence from the JDRF and the Banting Medal for Leadership and Service from the ADA. He served as the president of medicine and science of the American Diabetes Association in 2017. Dr. Powers, a physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, is listed by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. as one of America’s top doctors. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and his medical degree from the University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences. After training in internal medicine at Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Powers trained in endocrinology and diabetes at the Joslin Diabetes Center; Massachusetts General Hospital; and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Jennifer Green is an associate professor of medicine in the division of endocrinology, metabolism and nutrition at Duke University and a faculty member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), and she served as chief of the endocrinology section at the Durham VA medical center from 2003 to 2017.

Green’s research has focused primarily on strategies to predict, prevent, and treat diabetes mellitus. In particular, she is interested in the effects of interventions to modify glycemic control, dyslipidemia, and hypertension on cardiovascular and other diabetes-related complications. She has served as an investigator in federally funded clinical trials of type 2 diabetes management including ACCORD, BARI 2D, and GRADE. Her work with the DCRI has included protocol development and clinical and operational leadership for several international trials to determine the cardiovascular effects of glucose-lowering medications. She is also a member of the data and safety monitoring board for the NIDDK consortium of artificial pancreas studies.

Green completed her undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Virginia; her internal medicine residency at the University of North Carolina; and her endocrinology fellowship at Duke.

Amy L. Yaroch, PhD
Title: Evidence empowers, national program evaluation work being conducted at the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition

Amy Yaroch is executive director at the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, a non-profit research center in Omaha, Neb. She holds special appointments at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center. She received her doctorate in nutrition, with an emphasis in behavioral science, from Emory University. She has worked as an assistant scientist at AMC Cancer Research Center in Denver and as a program director/behavioral scientist at the National Cancer Institute. At NCI, she oversaw research efforts in obesity prevention and skin cancer prevention.

Since 2009, Yaroch has been leading research and program evaluation efforts at the Gretchen Swanson Center, pioneering research-practice partnerships in obesity prevention, food insecurity and local food systems. She oversees 17 employees and an average of 25 active projects annually. The center’s work is funded by government and foundation partners including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.